Welcome to jACKrABBIT! Here you can buy seeds for growing your own produce and ingredients for cooking and baking, you can find recipes for everyday and for preserving home-grown food and find activities and ideas for getting you and your children out of doors and enjoying nature. We also sell native wildflower seeds to encourage those important bees and butterflies into your garden.

Drying French and Runner Beans

You can of course eat runner or French beans fresh from the plant, but sometimes you might want to dry the bean seeds inside the pods for later use. Some beans dry better than others, and our borlotti and blue lake stringless both dry pretty well.

You need to leave the beans on the plant till the pods go yellow. Then, cut the plant from the base and hang it upsidedown  till the pods are brittle. You can then remove the bean seeds from inside, but before you store them you should spread them on a tray for a few days, before packing them in airtight containers.

To cook the dried beans you will need to soak them overnight in water. To cook, drain away the soaking water and discard. Rinse the beans and then boil them in water for 10 minutes. Reduce heat and then simmer beans till tender.

Broad bean seeds can be dried in exactly the same way.
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